Etiquette Speech Strategy in the Spanish Diplomatic Discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the ethical speech strategy in the Spanish diplomatic discourse. The article deals with the functioning of speech strategy in Spanish diplomatic documents. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of studying of the speech impact on the addressee of the communication. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical aspects. The article gives an overview of the concepts of «speech genre», «speech strategy», «ethical genres». The subject of study are the texts of diplomatic documents of the Spanish Ambassador to Russia, Duke de Liria during the reign of Emperor Peter II and Empress Anna Ioannovna. The Duke de Liria ethical speech strategy involves numerous areas of silence about the most important historical events of Russia during this period, which is evidence of the modality of persuasion of the addressee in the absence of active domestic political life in the country and the formation of public opinion in accordance with the goal, the conclusion of a treaty between Russia and the Holy Roman Empire. The author of the article shows that modern ethical speech strategies of the Spanish diplomatic discourse also exist mainly in the modality of persuasion, today they use a large arsenal of means to achieve this goal, which includes repetition, synonymous series and periphrastic constructions, outdated words and expressions, which gives the right to speak about a high degree of conservatism of ethical speech strategies in the Spanish political discourse. The author of the article concludes that etiquette speech strategies on the one hand reflect global trends, on the other hand, demonstrate a high commitment to national principles of diplomatic documents construction.

Keywords

• etiquette
• speech strategy
• diplomatic discourse
• ritualization
• polycode text